The Trump administration has 12,800 migrant children in custody. There are two particularly strong reasons to be upset with this:
- Since these are minors, under American law they aren’t responsible for what their parents did. Under American law, you can’t be jailed for doing nothing wrong. Soviet law yes. Not America, not ever.
- How much is this stupidity costing US taxpayers, and where is Trump taking the money? From the military budget? From Education? Using standard incarceration costs, these kids are costing taxpayers $448 million per year. You’re paying out of your own pocket for this.
Let’s put this in real terms.
There are 126 million households in the US.
Trump’s border wall would cost in excess of $70 billion to build. That’s $560 per US family. (Mexico is paying nada.) How do you feel about your taxes going up that much to pay for a wall?
Since drug smugglers are using aircraft, subs and tunnels to evade the existing border fence, how is a wall going to change anything? So this is a pure waste of money. After construction, you will be paying annual maintenance.
How do you feel about your taxes going up to pay for jailing kids?
It’s your money that’s being used to do these things. You personally are responsible.
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